“Unite for a Better Future for Women in Sri
Lanka”
The exchange program
between Fisher Women in the East Coast to West Coast of Sri Lanka
Held Between
Baticoloa women organizations and Sri Vimukthi Fisher women Organization,
Negombo, which was held 11th December to 14th December,
2012.
The First Day: The Batticoloa team arrived at NAFSO
around 2.00pm which is well on the scheduled time. As they were left STA
Foundation office at Kallady at Batticoloa by 5.00 in the morning they were
able to reach Negombo as planned. There were 27 members[24 female and 3 male]
in the group and also 3 kids were joined with the team. Mr. Kamaldhas, the
coordinator of STA Foundation has sent a message to the coordination team
mentioning that the women are scared to leave their small children at home as
storms, cyclones, gales and also tsunamis are prevalent at Baticoloa during
December.
The Negombo team which included the members from Sri
Vimukthi Fisher Women Organization and also the NAFSO secretariat members
warmly welcome the women group with traditional Tamil welcome custom call arathie.
The program began with the welcome speech delivered by Subashinee
Deepa, the coordinator of SVFWO. It was very cordial welcome of Suba in which
she mentioned that the Negombo women are
open their hearts and minds to receive
the sisters and their kids from Batticoloa. Pradeep Laksiri, the Youth and
environmental coordinator of NAFSO, set the objectives of the program.
The women leaders at Batticaloa to connect with
women’s groups of traditional small scale fishing
communities in other parts of Sri Lanka
(south)
b.
Io exchange experiences and link up struggles/
advocacy.
c.
Of enhancing reconciliation between ethnic
Sinhala and ethnic Tamil communities,
d.
To get assistance in realization of a collective
livelihood pilot project for women in fisheries, such as fish ponds
preparations, fish processing and
marketing project.
After the objective setting, Ms. Geetha Lakmini Fernando,
Admin Secretary of NAFSO intervened with the input of Introduction on SL fisheries in particular emphasis on women.
Some of the issues faced by SL fisher communities in the
country were focused.
Ø
The imbalance of the input and the income from
fisheries, fuel price and fisher people’s struggles,
Ø
Indian trawler issue and northern fishermen,
Ø
Market and Fish sales, fish processing and post
harvest practices of women folk,
Ø
Access to sea, lagoon and inland fresh water
bodies and proposed tourism plans,
are some of the points raised by Ms.
Fernando.
As the response to Ms. Fernando’s input,
the eastern coast women folk shared their burning issues even after 3 ½ years
of ending war.
One of the main issue raised by the women are
the encroachment of southern Sinhala fisher groups in to northern and eastern
province waters and there is no any positive response to their grievances.
The work of the STA Foundation and the issues raised by Ms. Puvanendran
are as follows;
Ø
Least attention or lack of proper interventions
by the development agencies, government authorities of women,
Ø
Women of fishing communities face serious
hardships. Many households have lost male bread winners and became female headed.
STA Foundations Work;
1. Working with Adult:
STA has formed an association of adults and work on their
rights and protection.
2. Youth and Children
Children and youth are depressed with effects of the war and
become unemployed. There is a necessity
to organize capacity building program to empower them.
3. Children Program
A home for parentless children is being
carried out by STA Foundation. There are some programs conducted by the
organization for the children. Some concern people are supportive to conduct
the program.
Programs are being carried out for the providing
necessities and help of women headed families.
Also some replanting programs are carried
out as environmental activities. There
are number of disable people living in the villages and direct various agencies
to assist those families and individuals.
After the input and the sharing
of the floor, the group had the evening tea before the next group discussion.
As the final session of the day, the group was divided in to
two groups for a discussion on the expectation sharing with the southern group
and spent around one hour for the same.
Following points were
emerged at the group discussions as the expectations of the women’s group.
·
Alleviate the ethnic divisions and build up friendship
between the ethnic groups,
·
To understand how to build up communities
through organization formation,
·
To learn about the self help programs which are
important to build up the economies of the women folk in those communities,
·
Some issues and solutions emerging as a result
of working through an organization,
·
Understand how to work together in a common
struggles,
·
To learn ways and means to work as a strong
women organization on women and other developmental issues,
·
To learn how to keep proper accounts as an
organization,
The first day was ended with the
dinner around 7.30pm
